After a tight production capacity in 2021, TSMC has started chip production in 2022 without stopping. American technology giants, including AMD, Apple, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, etc., are deeply afraid that TSMC will slack off because it is too busy to work, and has preemptively paid a deposit to ensure that subsequent orders can be delivered on time.
Some insiders speculate that in 2022, TSMC's order advance payment will reach 34.5 billion yuan. TSMC first got this money, even if it is only deposited in the bank to "eat interest" can make a small profit. This is really rare in the industry, and if there are no special circumstances, the advance payment for general orders is only a small part. This also indicates the busy state of the global chip industry in the new year, and perhaps the chip industry will not have an off-season in 2022.
There have been insiders who have revealed that Apple will release the next iPhone15 model, from 5G chips to processors, etc. will fully use its own research and development of chips, when TSMC will be apple's exclusive chip manufacturer. It can be said that with apples in hand, TSMC's business from 2022 to 2023 does not have to worry.
Apple's former "partner" Qualcomm will withdraw from Apple's mainstream mobile phone chip supplier queue. Previously, the person in charge of Qualcomm revealed that by 2023, Apple will only have 20% of the 5G modems left for Qualcomm.
In other words, in Apple's eyes, Qualcomm's biggest drawback is not that its business capabilities are not enough, but that there is a potential business competition with Apple. Qualcomm originally designed the chip itself, if Apple then handed over its own chip design drawings to Qualcomm FOUNDRy, the future is likely to have the problem of technology theft. As a mobile phone manufacturer with the world's unique IOS ecosystem, Apple must ensure the confidentiality of its own technology.
Text | Liao Lisi title | Huang Zi gallium trial | Lu Shuoyi